“Oh, no. He was going up to a farmhouse that’s quite close to the old factory. I think he wants to look the property over. He’s thinking of opening it up again, you know.”
“What sort of factory is it?” questioned Fred.
“Why, it used to be a paint works. What they’re going to do with it now though, I don’t know. It’s a pretty good building, and I suppose it could be used for most anything.”
After the storekeeper had supplied them with the things they wanted he told them they had better hang around a little longer as the train would soon be in with the mail. They waited as directed and were rewarded with a number of letters which, of course, they read eagerly.
One communication received by Jack was from Ruth. In it the girl declared that she was having a fine time with the other girls at Valley Brook Farm, but that she was very much worried over her father’s business affairs.
“The loss of the book of formulas is worrying dad a great deal,” she wrote. “Not only because he spent so much money on it, but because he got some of the money from Uncle Barney and because he signed an agreement to purchase a place where he could manufacture those artists’ colors. And worst of all, the loss of the money seems to have revived that old quarrel between dad and Uncle Barney. Mother is terribly worried, especially as dad doesn’t seem to be nearly as well as he was before that aeroplane accident.”
The reading of this communication worried Jack not a little. He could see that Ruth was much downcast over the state of affairs.
“Everything all right, Jack?” questioned Fred. “Here’s a letter from dad if you’d like to read it. Everything is O. K. down their way.”